Briggs Cunningham was a wealthy yachtsman who would go on to win the 1958 Americas Cup. He also had an interest in auto racing and a strong desire to win the Le Mans 24 Hour in a car of his design.
Luigi Chinnetti persuaded Cunningham to enter and made arrangements with race officials for two entries. Briggs was introduced to mechamic Bill Frick and they set to building a pair of Fords with the Cadillac engines that were proving themselves in Allards. Race officals disparaged the cars as "hot rods" and declared that they did not meet regulations, so two 1950 Cadillac Series 61 Coupe deVilles were purchased with manual transmissions. LeMans rules stated that no internal engine modifications could be performed and the chassis must be stock, but the bodies and the external parts of the engine could be modified. Thus was 'Le Monstre' created.
It was decided to leave one of the Cadillacs relatively untouched and use the other to explore the edges of the rulebook. They devised an aluminum body in the wind tunnel that was low and wide and quite unattractive. Two way radios were installed in both cars. Le Monstre received five carburetors and the other Cadillac made do with two two-barrel carbs.
While Le Monstre was technologically innovative, it wasn't a great race car. It ended up in a sandbank on the 2nd lap and took 20 minutes to be freed, putting them down four laps. At the end, they had come from 35th to 11th, with the coupe in 10th. It was a fine accomplishment for a first time effort and things looked encouraging.
